Tag: Chance Hein

Chance, my middle grandson, is trading his tree house for a dorm room at the end of the summer. He is leaving the mountains of Winter Park and moving to downtown Salem, Oregon to attend Willamette University. His life will never be the same. Either will mine.

Chance is an only child. He has been with most of the same kids since preschool. It hasn’t always been easy.

When other kids were chasing each other up and down the playground, Chance was playing elaborate games of make-believe. When his classmates were thinking of ways to get in trouble, Chance was reading books.

I loved spending time with Chance in the summers, when he came to Denver for enrichment classes. He was an eager student in Grandma’s Cooking School. We toured Aurora and Boulder together. We went to the zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and a lot of swimming pools.

Being with Chance is to experience magic, first-hand. He is a cross between a leprechaun and a medieval knight. He loves to have fun and play games. He is handsome and charming, quiet and shy, but mostly ~ he is a good boy.

This is my letter to Chance on this last summer before he takes on the world:

Dear Chance ~I am so grateful to have you in my life! You are an amazing grandson. Every day I spend with you, every phone call, every text and email, every time I think about you brings me joy. Pure joy! 

I appreciate your kind heart and your grace under pressure. You are polite, considerate and respectful, in a world in which those qualities are more important than ever. Others can learn from your example. That is your message to share.

I appreciate that you are exceptional in so many ways. You are a reader and a writer, an athlete and a scholar, a computer wizard and a theater geek. You passed all of your classes with “A’s” and earned the respect of your teachers for your hard work and natural talent. Your ability to memorize Magic Cards blows me away. College will be easier than you think. Have fun.

I especially appreciate your creativity and your vivid imagination. Your mind travels to far-away places where dragons live and pirates fly their boats in the the skies. Hold on to your creativity and your wonderful imagination. They will take you to places that others can only dream about.

Other people appreciate your beautiful smile and the twinkle in your eyes. I do, too. But most of all, I appreciate the light in your heart, the breadth of your soul, the sharpness of your mind, and your keen understanding of what’s truly important.

Baby, you are the best. I am so very proud of you. Vaya con Dios!

I will always love you!

Grandma

Some children are born with a touch of magic . My oldest grandson, Connor, believed in leprechauns. My youngest one, Max,  believed in Elf on the Shelf. Chance, my middle grandson IS a leprechaun and the Christmas Elf, rolled into one.

Chance is cute and charming, with an incredibly kind heart and a vivid imagination. As an only child, Chance’s best friend has always been his creativity. An early, voracious reader, he devoured fantasy books. While other students were kicking a soccer ball around the playground at recess, Chance and his friends were playing elaborate games that involved dragons, heroes and villains. 

I once asked Chance what he wanted to be when he grew up. “A librarian and a spy,” was his answer. “That’s good,” I thought. I’ve met a number of librarians who had the same double major.

For a while, Chance wanted to be a pirate, after playing the part of the drunken sailor, Mr. Smee, in his preschool rendition of Peter Pan.

Some years later, Chance came to Mexico with his parents and met up with me and Neto in Sayulita. While his parents were swimming in the ocean, Chance stayed back with us. He put his hand on Neto’s knee and said, “Someday I’m going to build a pirate ship that flies through the sky. Only special people can get on board. But you two ~ you will definitely be part of my crew.”

The highlight of my summers, when Chance was little, were the weeks he spent with me while he attended camp at the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. One summer I told him I wanted to build a fairy garden, and he was “all-in.” We went to the local nursery to pick out a fairy castle. Chance dug through his stash of miniature cars and found a golf cart and a convertible to add to the mix. We installed a tiny bird bath, an outdoor table, and some benches. Every year, when I set up the fairy garden again, I think of Chance and smile. 

In middle school, Chance went to a week-long camp at UC-Boulder and again stayed with me. We spent a couple nights in Boulder, rather than make the drive to and from Aurora every day. What fun! Our apartment was designed to look like a tree-house, complete with a swing suspended from the ceiling. We felt like two birds, high up in the trees. It was a perfect get-away for a boy with a vivid imagination and his grandmother, who sometimes likes to pretend she’s a bird, too.  

Chance  lives in Fraser, with his parents, Garth and Bethany, and goes to Middle Park High School in Granby. He studies hard, operates the sound board for school plays, and volunteers  in his community. He holds down a job washing dishes at a local restaurant, skis in the winter and rides his mountain bike in the summer. In his spare time ~ meager that it is ~ he collects Magic Cards and goes to Magic Card game nights with his friends.

Next year, Chance will be a high school senior. I love our FaceTime calls. Chance reads my blog every week and he is my go-to person for computer help. He’s thinking about where he wants to go to college and may go somewhere far away. I will miss him.

Wherever the journey takes him, I know that Chance will thrive. He will work hard and maintain his kind, generous spirit. I hope he keeps his imagination alive. I hope that Neto and I will always be part of his pirate crew.